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The Weekly Round Up: June 15-19

http://whiteearthdesign.co.uk/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron=1522210581.5248711109161376953125While everyone might be talking about the Pope’s encyclical, that’s not the only big thing that happened involving mother nature this week. We also found out that Nutella is evil and that kangaroos might not be as helpful as you might expect. Or maybe you never thought that kangaroos were helpful. Either way, it’s time for the Weekly Round Up, so let’s dive in!

buy modafinil glasgowFirst, we’ve got a quick story coming out of Japan. In a new study, researchers have found out that dogs care about you (the verdict is still out on cats, but let’s be honest, they don’t). In a double snub treat test, it was found that dogs would not accept food from someone who would not help their owner. After watching interactions between their owner and strangers, where their owner got denied help, the dogs would then dish out some good ol’ puppy justice, and snub those shitty non-helpers right back. Who’s a good boy? (http://www.newser.com/story/208296/your-dog-can-tell-if-someone-is-mean-to-you.html)

Heading now across the sea to France, it appears that some members of government aren’t too happy with Nutella. French Environmental Minister Segolene Royal, in particular, mentioned Nutella as a company to boycott due to their use of palm oil as an ingredient. The growth and production of palm oil is pretty devastating to our environment, but it’s unfortunately a product used in most of the food we eat. I’d list off other food companies, or really any type of company as palm is used in tons of products, but that’s already been done for me here, and I don’t really want to write a novel today. Funnily enough, this isn’t even the first time that France has attacked palm oil, or Nutella, as back in 2012 French senators unsuccessfully tried to impose a 300% tax on palm oil products. Vive la France! (http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/06/16/stop-eating-nutella-urges-french-environment-minister)

In line with our current monthly conservation series on water consumption, it would appear that the lawns of Kim K, J-Lo, and B Strei (that’s Barbra Streisand’s nickname right?) aren’t the only suckers of California’s dwindling clean water supply. Apparently (surprise, surprise) oil companies are also to blame. Thanks to the oil refining process, which uses between 1 to 1.5 gallons of water per gallon of oil, Californian oil companies are a big reason behind why the well’s running dry. So what’s the grand total here? 94 million gallons of clean water used per day. Someone should really do something about protecting what little drinkable water we have left… #cleanwater4tatum. (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/california-water-suck-you-never-heard)

Now, as I mentioned before, this next story really couldn’t be ignored, as everyone was talking about it: Pope Francis. The Vatican released its first ever encyclical on the environment this week, and it’s making waves. Urging people to protect God’s creations, Pope Francis said that our “structurally perverse” economic system is hurting the earth and the poor. Honestly though, I kinda just want to talk about the Pope. This guy’s great! Not only is he taking a strong stance on the environment, but his encyclical is apparently “blunt and full of zingers“, and the sentence, ” it’s man who has slapped nature in the face”, has honestly passed through his lips. I might just need to talk about him sometime soon…

And finally unhelpful kangaroos. New service animal laws have been made in a small Wisconsin city after a woman brought her baby kangaroo service animal into a McDonald’s. The city was apparently not too happy about this, or about their lenient definition of what qualifies as a service animal, causing them to rethink some stuff. The new law now bans kangaroos as service animals, instead naming dogs and, I shit you not, miniature horses as the only types of acceptable furry helpers. What I want to know, however, is where she got this kangaroo. I mean, who’s out there training service kangaroos, it’s ridiculous. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/17/kangaroo-ban-service-animals-wisconsin_n_7602716.html)

But that’s all the news for this week’s Weekly Round Up. Have a good weekend!